Quarantined at home, staring at her empty appointment book, a Brookhaven woman decided she had enough.
“I was sitting in my office, watching the dental industry crumble…in three days, all the dental offices I work for closed. Everyone became unemployed. Then, my best friend told me she was running out of face masks. She works for a nursing home,” Seta MacCrory said.
MacCrory is a dental hygienist and has run a dental staffing service since 2008.
“I make sure dental staff find dental offices to work in. Basically, I’m a dental cupid.”
But since the Coronavirus outbreak, her matchmaking skills have been put to the test.
“My hands are tied. Everything I thought I had control over in my life is completely gone," she said. "For the last five days, my job has been to tell people everything is going to be ok. Single moms are worried about paying their rent, dentists have called me, wondering how they’re going to pay their staff.”
In addition to that, MacCrory’s husband recently lost his job. Instead of giving in to despair, MacCrory decided to help. She posted a message on Facebook, called dental offices in the region and asked if they had face masks. Since those offices are closed, presumably, that equipment wouldn’t be used. She suggested a trade to sweeten the pot.
“I told them, ‘I’ll give you a free worker—a temporary worker, for a day, if you give me a box of face masks.”
The problem is, medical facilities are reporting shortages of face masks and other protective equipment. Last week, federal officials recommended conservation strategies to address the face mask shortage.
The Centers for Disease Control is also telling health care workers to use bandanas as a last resort.
MacCrory hoped to collect masks, hand sanitizer, soap, lab jackets and hair nets and then bring them to hospitals and health care workers.
“I think even just one face mask will make a difference…just one.”
When NBC 10 spoke with MacCrory Thursday afternoon, she was making phone calls and coordinating pickups with medical offices.
“I needed to do something. We all need to work together,” added MacCrory.
